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Measurement of Single Phonons with Single Photons

Submitted by Web Services Editor on Tue, 04/01/2014 - 15:26

There has been great recent progress in controlling the quantum behavior of nanomechanical resonators. In this project, we aim to extend such control to the strongly quantum regime in which a single photon can be used to either read out or act back on a single phonon. To do so, we will use a superconducting device, the Cooper pair transistor, as a charge-tunable inductance embedded in a superconducting microwave cavity. By coupling the transistor to a nanomechanical resonator, we plan to use resonator motion at the level of a single phonon to shift the resonant frequency of the cavity. This capability should allow us to investigate strongly non-linear quantum interactions of light with matter, with implications for quantum measurement and information science. Our group collaborates closely with the group of Miles Blencowe on this project.

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